Small package, big fun

By Brian Callaway

The Morning Call

July 17, 2008

Some things are guaranteed to make you popular, like having a rooftop pool in the city or knowing the bouncer at a hot new club or having really luxurious hair.

Now there's a new surefire way to make people like you: Drive a Smart car.

A few area residents have been lucky enough to snap up the itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny European two-seaters as they've been trickling onto these shores in recent months.

They may have purchased the gas-powered cars for fuel efficiency, but they've discovered some surprise benefits. Namely, people like them. They really, really like them.

'When you're waiting to get into traffic, people actually stop and smile and wave you in,' said John Heley, a Quakertown attorney and one of the area's first Smart car owners. 'Nobody throws the finger at you. Not the usual [behavior].'

To experience that, The Morning Call appropriated a Smart car from one of its photographers, who ordered it last fall and finally received it in May.

All that stuff Heley was saying? Totally true.

Children in passing cars pointed and smiled. A couple walking on Tilghman Street in Allentown stopped and waved. Outside a Chinese buffet on Lehigh Street, Terrence Kline of North Catasauqua walked up to ask about the vehicle and offer his regards.

'People, they want big things, they want real big stuff and they think that bigger is better,' the Geo Metro owner said. 'But in reality, it really isn't better. Bigger is more of a burden.'

Smart cars -- the official name is 'Smart Fortwo' -- are manufactured by Mercedes-Benz and have been widely available in Europe and other places for years. Mercedes only decided to begin selling the tiny cars in the Land of the SUV last year, as American gas prices were lurching toward $4 per gallon.

The company started taking reservations anyone interested has to pay a $99 deposit to get a spot on the waiting list and began delivering the cars this year.

Smart cars are the smallest passenger vehicles sold in America, measuring less than 9 feet in length. The starting price for a basic one is less than $12,000.

They're also sold in relatively few places. There are only 74 Smart dealerships in the United States, and only one in eastern Pennsylvania -- Smart center Devon, outside Philadelphia.

Eric Bruno, a 'brand specialist' at the Devon dealership, said about 200 people have gotten smart cars there in recent months. Many more are anticipating receiving their cars. Bruno said there's at least a seven-month gap between when Smart cars are ordered and when they can be manufactured and delivered.

Nationwide, he said, more than 50,000 people are waiting for their cars to be completed. The car's small size, odd shape and relative novelty have fed public interest.

Bruno said the sales staff at his dealership isn't used to all the questions. Is it an electric car? Nope.

Is there enough leg room? Yep.

Bruno's favorite question: 'Where are the handlebars?' (It doesn't have any). There's nothing new about a car capturing the public's imagination, of course.

Bruno, who said he used to work with Toyota vehicles, compared the attention now being given to Smart cars with that given to the Prius in recent years.

'They're new cars, so they're intriguing to people,' he said.

Salespeople aren't the only ones dealing with that interest.

'I hear people getting bombarded with questions,' he said. 'Oh yeah, we've had people come in and ask for paychecks because they talk to so many people a day.'

Heley, a car collector who counts a 31-year-old Porsche Carrera and a '66 Lotus 7 among his prized possessions, said he's also found the Smart car to be a conversation starter.

Strangers have been chatting with him about the car ever since he got it about a month ago. He said one couple even helped him load groceries into his car just so they could talk to him about it.

He purchased it more for practicality, though.

Trials keep him shuttling between courthouses in Doylestown, Easton and Norristown, so having a car that gets about 45 miles per gallon helps.

'For me, this thing is a godsend,' he said.

He admits the side benefits of owning a Smart car are pretty swell, too.

'You can have some fun with that little devil.'

brian.callaway@mcall.com 610-820-6168

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